Sunderland's Maxim to create 250 jobs as it targets £20million turnover

Sunderland-based Maxim Facilities Management is cleaning up in the jobs market.

The North East’s largest independent contract cleaning and facilities management firm is aiming to create around 250 new jobs over the next 18 months as it heads towards its long-term growth ambitions.

Maxim’s annual turnover has passed £15million for the first time – and the firm is now on track to achieve its goal of increasing that to £20million by the end of next year.

The company has taken on more than 250 staff over the last 12 months, taking its total workforce up to 1,500 people, and is expecting to create the same number of new jobs by the end of next year, with half of them in the North East and the remainder across the UK.

Maxim picked up new contracts worth more than £500,000 a year in the first quarter of the year, with substantial recent growth in the education sector.

Large multi-academy trusts in Birmingham, Bradford, Middlesbrough, Oldham and Sunderland have all chosen Maxim to deliver their cleaning services over contracts between three and five years in length.

The Maxim management team is also currently working on building the firm’s presence in the Scottish education sector as a key part of its future growth plans. Maxim, which has branch offices in Leeds, Swindon and North Lanarkshire, works with a range of well-known firms and organisations, including Quorn Foods, Kromek plc, Salford College, Durham Cricket, TRW and the Scottish Prison Service. The firm has achieved a five-fold increase in business over the 11 years since it secured an initial investment from regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, who remain an investor today. Maxim founder and managing director Graham Conway said: “Our stated aim this time last year was to hit an annual billing rate of £15million, and having reached that landmark, our long-term target of £20million now feels well within reach.

“We’ve been consistently able to create significant numbers of new jobs on the back of this growth, with continuing to build our expert team remaining central to being able to meet demand from new and existing clients.

“We have an especially strong track record in successfully delivering flexible, tailored services within the education sector, which currently represents around half of our contract cleaning turnover, and this is helping us compete for and secure major new seven figure contracts with institutions right across the country in competition with some of the industry’s biggest national names.”